The venerable Jean Vanier, who is 89 this year, has in recent times come into the consciousness of those of us who have not encountered him and his life’s work or mission in encountering the disabled and the poor. His biography is widely available, as in this site and his writings are just beginning to permeate my own consciousness.
His life’s work in founding L’Arche, that he started as a residency with the disabled, with the guidance of Fr Thomas Philippe at Trosly-Breuil, France in 1964 has been made into the film, Summer in the Forest. Amongst the many reviews, the Guardian called it ” “Breathtakingly beautiful… the keynote is joy… It will make you laugh.It will make you cry. And it will remind you of what it really means to be strong”
I started to read the work of Jean Vanier through the work of Henri Nouwen, and this too was a serendipitous encounter with Fr Nouwen’s posthumous monograph of four lectures, Finding My Way Home.
Having read through the breathe-taking perspectives of Fr Nouwen’s final ministry and pathway to Downward Mobility, a recurring theme by so many saintly role-models in this blog, I traveled with Fr Nouwen through his personal struggles and journeys in his journals in the Genesee Diary: report from a Trappist monastery (a must-read for the would-be contemplative), and The Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey, his final and successful attempt at a ministry that would define his life’s work till his untimely death ten years later.
Jean Vanier wrote extensively about the challenges of living in a community of disabled and carers, where the roles those who give and those who receive graces, is often reversed and in flux, and the depth of these experiences is often layered in such rich but also practical dimensions as to transcend the convention and norms of weakness and strength.
In an excerpt from the book, Jean Vanier: Essential Writings (Orbis Books), he writes about these challenges in a way that makes them universally applicable, whether that community is in the setting of his community with the disabled, a pastoral brotherhood or sisterhood, a faith community, or a community led by a mission.
He writes that:
“Community is one of the most beautiful realities … but also one of the most difficult to accomplish.”
He recognize that “it takes a long time to form … for barriers to drop; for non-verbal communications to (take root)”, and for individuals to start to “seek fulfillment, peace, and happiness of every other member of it” and not for themselves.
He said that chronologically (and figuratively), the first month is one of joy, the second month is experiencing mutual disdain (“everyone is a devil”), and the third month is when there is this acceptance that everyone is normal and real, the “striving for growth”, and the imperfections that comes with the impediments – in other words, “reality” – the desire to share poverty, hopes, aspirations, and growth in the spirit, and the acceptance that “all of us are wounded by sin and by egoism”.
Figuratively, the second month may take years to overcome, and it could be so long because some run away before it can be overcome to the third. The road from egoism to love, and from self to others, begins by accepting differences, and knowing one another, deeply, including the little things that can hurt them.
He writes that the enemies of community are enmities (of all possible divergent points of views, including, and especially, theology) and even friends (that reinforce silos, cliques, and divisions).
He asked that we use our gifts to contribute to build the community – this involves recognizing our gifts, and recognizing the gifts of others.
At L’Arche, he writes that “people who are powerless and vulnerable attract what is most beautiful and most luminous in those who are stronger: they call them to be more compassionate, to love intelligently, and not only in a sentimental way.” The weak help the more capable “discover their humanity and to leave the world of competition in order to put their energies at the service of love, justice, and peace.”
He describes those who are most severely disabled in the communities and residences of L’Arche, and how they transform and lead assistants (and carers) from a “world of conflict, competition, and hierarchy into the world of tenderness, healing, and covenantal relationships.”
And yet, while the folly of the Gospel is the folly of the Word, and it is the through the weak and the powerless, in whom the presence of Jesus is hidden, that the hearts of the powerful and rich are opened (Matt 12:5), a community with the poor is not always simple and gentle.
He cautioned that the weak, by their disabled and unreasonable demands and responses, have the power to draw out in us our anguish, our violence, the darkness within our own hearts, that we must overcome in a positive way, to “free ourselves from the powers of destruction within us.”
The work of Jean Vanier reminds us of the power of a simple idea that grows and grow as, through a spirituality of searching, thoughtfulness and insight into a deepening relationship with the individuals whom Jesus exhort us to search for Him at.
Reading the work and achievement of over 50 years of searching brings out the powerlessness of our self-determination, in ways that we cannot expect to organize or plan predictably, but only to walk in Faith and in Light.
*Post-script: February 23, 2020
Jean Vanier, who passed away in 2019, had been found in an internal L’Arche commissioned independent investigation to have sexually abused six women in the course of his long association with the community. The investigation also threw light on the earlier discovered sins and censor of his late mentor and co-founder, Padre Thomas Philippe. How do we reassess the work and impact of this person after such a shocking revelation? Surely something to reflect upon ……
(Lumix G85; Lumix 12-60 mm lens, Kiyosato, Ozora, Lake Mashu, northern Hokkaido, Japan, August 2018)
References:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Vanier
2. www.summerintheforest.com 3. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/380542.Finding_My_Way_Home 4. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3723372-jean-vanier (Jean Vanier: Essential Writings; Modern Spiritual Masters. Jean Vanier, Carolyn Whitney-Brown
Postscript (23rd Feb 2020)
5. L’Arche founder Jean Vanier sexually abused women – internal report